Brad Stevens was interviewed postgame after the Celtics fell to the Bulls in a blowout, 121-99. After the tough loss, Stevens was asked about the defensive slippage and overall failure to execute.
“Their size is an issue for us… their size and length hurt us… we had to overreact some to that… we did not have a good shooting night… they’re a tough matchup for us… obviously I think that they played really well and we did not shoot the ball well and it kind of went from there.”
Boston was forced to adapt on the fly against Chicago, and Stevens said overhelping and switching were struggles for the Celtics. “We had to change our coverages in the second half… we started switching all the Vucevic pick n’ rolls… we were not quick enough… it forces you to be in rotations a little bit… generally all game we were a little bit late.”
The Celtics had a tough shooting night, but Stevens didn’t want to discredit the Bulls or their effort. “They’re a hard matchup for us… it’s too bad they haven’t been full the whole time… I think that certainly, we were not great, but they had a lot to do with it.” Boston had managed to cut the lead down to 8, but eventually ran out of gas. Coach Stevens said “A lot of times those rallies fall short, Gary, because you put in so much effort to get back into it… they made some big plays, but those are hard mountains to climb back… we had a couple tough turnovers.”
On the big games coming up against the Miami Heat, Stevens said “We prepare the same for every game… we’ll have a brief team meeting tomorrow… obviously they’re important games… looks like they’re also getting full, or close to it… it’s not the 6th of 7th place Miami team, when they’re full they are a monster.” With Robert Williams out, Boston struggled to deal with Chicago’s bigs, and Stevens knows he’s challenged with figuring out the rotations at center while he’s out.
